2023 Formula 1 Thread

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James Key has been sacked by McLaren, they’re replacing the technical director role with a troika of specialists in different areas including Peter Prod who’s been there from Red Bull for a long time and soon one of Ferrari’s top guys. The Ferrari bloke won’t get there until Jan 2024 so potentially the next two years of McLaren (including the entirety of Lando Norris’ contract) could be a wash.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-mclaren-shake-up-risks-repeat-of-past-failure/
 
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James Key has been sacked by McLaren, they’re replacing the technical director role with a troika of specialists in different areas including Peter Prod who’s been there from Red Bull for a long time and soon one of Ferrari’s top guys. The Ferrari bloke won’t get there until Jan 2024 so potentially the next two years of McLaren (including the entirety of Lando Norris’ contract) could be a wash.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-mclaren-shake-up-risks-repeat-of-past-failure/
Interesting development for sure. Norris definitely has the potential and most certainly deserves better than what he’s getting from McLaren
 
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As an aside, MotoGP had its first ‘F1 like’ sprint race this weekend and it didn’t disappoint. So much so there seemed to be scant regard for preservation for the main race!
 
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As an aside, MotoGP had its first ‘F1 like’ sprint race this weekend and it didn’t disappoint. So much so there seemed to be scant regard for preservation for the main race!

It was fun ! buuut I don't understand the point of having a sprint race "for free". In Formula 1, the final position during the sprint race determines the starting spot for the Sunday race.
In MotoGP, there is less time to set up the bike, more danger, and no benefits, except for perhaps more spectacle.
 
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Sometimes it seems the FIA makes rules just because they can.

Kinda like Congress...
 
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My son was watching the Australian GP 2023... over his shoulder I saw the last 5 minutes
In lap 56/58 I saw a RED Flag for NO REASON at all ... what a woke circus just a restart to show all the commercials on helmets & cars!
Those who have known the F1 races of the early 1970s (Kyalami - Midrand, Mixhuca Mexico, ...) don't believe what a circus the F1 has become !
😁
 
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Unfortunately our society has devolved into safetyism, the cult of safety as the primary goal, we are obsessed with eliminating threats, both real and imagined. Instead of expecting the best drivers in the world to be able to cope with some gravel on the track we red flag the race to insure everyone remains safe. It soon becomes debilitating. Safetyism is all around us, we are obsessed with keeping safe, our guiding principle is "better safe than sorry".
 
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It was fun ! buuut I don't understand the point of having a sprint race "for free". In Formula 1, the final position during the sprint race determines the starting spot for the Sunday race.
In MotoGP, there is less time to set up the bike, more danger, and no benefits, except for perhaps more spectacle.
My son was watching the Australian GP 2023... over his shoulder I saw the last 5 minutes
In lap 56/58 I saw a RED Flag for NO REASON at all ... what a woke circus just a restart to show all the commercials on helmets & cars!
Those who have known the F1 races of the early 1970s (Kyalami - Midrand, Mixhuca Mexico, ...) don't believe what a circus the F1 has become !
😁

Sporting regs require the completion of the race. They had no choice.
If they had ended the race on the red flag then due to the rules as they had not passed the sector no official update to race position would have occurred. And the crashed cars would have retained their position even though they had not completed the race.

The rules followed go back decades. This is not a new interpretation or set of rules.

the only odd thing was the red flag after that lead to the final restart…. They should have just completed under safety car.
 
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Unfortunately our society has devolved into safetyism, the cult of safety as the primary goal, we are obsessed with eliminating threats, both real and imagined. Instead of expecting the best drivers in the world to be able to cope with some gravel on the track we red flag the race to insure everyone remains safe. It soon becomes debilitating. Safetyism is all around us, we are obsessed with keeping safe, our guiding principle is "better safe than sorry".

funny I was just talking about this with who raced in the early 80’s.

he agreed since it was a high speed area if the track and that is where the difference was. In high speed that gravel becomes bullets to cars following each other.
 
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he agreed since it was a high speed area if the track and that is where the difference was. In high speed that gravel becomes bullets to cars following each other.
This is how I saw it too. I can’t remember who it was in recent history that took gravel to the finger in a high speed area and felt like they had broken finger(s) the rest of the race.
 
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Pierre Gasly 2020 Sakhir
Roman Grosjean 2020 Nürburgring

I recall that JMF would keep his thumbs on the outside of the rim of the wheel following his experience racing on unmade South American roads which could break thumbs..
 
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The Sainz penalty was a joke. You put drivers in a position to have to battle for position off a restart with two laps to go. What did they think was going to happen, of course there was going to be contact. On lap 1 that would be considered a racing incident.
Sainz made a mistake yes, but the 5 seconds in that scenario was the equivalent of a 10 second stop and go within the first 10 laps of a race.
 
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The Sainz penalty was a joke. You put drivers in a position to have to battle for position off a restart with two laps to go. What did they think was going to happen, of course there was going to be contact. On lap 1 that would be considered a racing incident.
Sainz made a mistake yes, but the 5 seconds in that scenario was the equivalent of a 10 second stop and go within the first 10 laps of a race.
Alonzo agrees… although i suspect if the red flag had occurred 15 seconds later he would disagree.
 
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Free red flag tire changes and repairs need to stop. If teams want to make changes, they should go the back, or perform them under running conditions.
 
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Free red flag tire changes and repairs need to stop. If teams want to make changes, they should go the back, or perform them under running conditions.
Interesting theory… the idea is if they have to red flag there is a chance that tire damage occurred to other drivers due to the incident that caused the red flag.

there is also a heat cycle issue that pretty much ruins the tires if they roll back into the pit.

also I’m hindsite with the wall damage and needing to reset the wall it was pretty obvious a red flag hence why only MB and one other made the bad read and pitted.

most teams read it right and stayed out.
 
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I really don't understand the point of formation laps counting immediately after the resumption after a red flag. Ending behind the safety car is fine, as races are finished under caution in a lot of different series. But in those other series, typically a red flag means there will be SOME racing after the track is cleaned up.

The FIA stewards continue to confuse me (as an avid Indycar fan for 20+ years).
 
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I really don't understand the point of formation laps counting immediately after the resumption after a red flag. Ending behind the safety car is fine, as races are finished under caution in a lot of different series. But in those other series, typically a red flag means there will be SOME racing after the track is cleaned up.

The FIA stewards continue to confuse me (as an avid Indycar fan for 20+ years).

I believe the cars only carry enough fuel to complete a certain number of laps. Add laps and they risk running dry.